Swanline Paper and Board’s Cygnus® materials offer a great range of diverse capabilities. Made in the heart of Sweden by Oppboga, our top two selling materials are Cygnus Eco Board and Cygnus Excellent Display Board. They are both 100% recyclable, and FSC® certified and both are ideal alternatives to plastics.
One recent project involved Swanline’s customer, Macfarlane Packaging, with Johnson & Johnson as the end user company. Johnson and Johnson were keen to reduce the amount of single use plastic packaging used for a mouthwash product promotion.
Listerine
The project itself was a Listerine 600ml twin value pack, historically using shrink wrap as a solution for back-to-back loaded products inside a shelf ready pack. There was an additional label to communicate product details.
It was felt that the pack was not environmentally friendly, nor did it do justice aesthetically to the promotion itself. The plan was to try and remove the shrink-wrap and the need for the additional label and replace it with a cost effective, environmentally friendly alternative. The unit would also have to be secure and durable during distribution and customer handling.
Solution
Swanline’s Director of National Sales, Judi Chapple, detailed the unique properties of Swanline’s Cygnus Eco Board to Macfarlane, highlighting the areas in which it could remove the need for plastic, yet still be an economic and cost-effective packaging option.
Johnson & Johnson had been actively seeking plastic alternatives, so our customer explained the benefits of Cygnus Eco materials and how Swanline was able to remove the need for shrink wrap.
Swanline’s design team worked closely with Judi and the customer, initially designing a belly band across the centre of the bottles. The team also trialled several other board grades, including E Flute and conventional folding box board options.
Cygnus 830-micron Eco Board Ultra was found to be the best solution. Cygnus Eco Board is normally selected for its water resistance but in this case, it was the superior tear resistance of this material that made it the best solution. The belly band design shaped and formed around the centre of the product creating a secure fit.
The final design was presented to the client as a fully recyclable and environmentally friendly option, completely removing the need for shrink wrap. It also gave the customer a good-sized print area and product visibility.
One further adjustment was requested – to place the bottles side by side to give more on shelf visual impact. The design team redeveloped the new belly band and the design was completed with a clever locking system that negated the use of glue to seal the pack. Litho print directly to the substrate contributed to a premium looking pack that benefitted from the unique properties of the Cygnus Eco Board.
Conclusion
Swanline produced over 500,000 sleeves, completely removing the need for over two and half tonnes of plastic skink wrap. The customer is currently looking at other similar projects where they could harness the unique characteristics of Cygnus Eco Board, including the replacement of plastic clip strips.
If you have a packaging project needing the benefits of an eco-friendly alternative to plastic, give Swanline a call today.
